about the author -
key features -
description -
catalog page -
home - |
All in One: Basic Writing Text,
Workbook, and Reader
Fourth Edition
by Laraine Fergenson and Marie-Louise Nickerson
| 
 |
 |
All in One is really three books in one. This edition, like the first three, is (1) a comprehensive writing skills handbook and workbook, (2) an anthology of acclaimed reading selections, edited and annotated for basic writing students, and (3) a vocabulary builder, with vocabulary exercises based on the words in the readings.
Along with new readings and exercises, this fourth edition features a rearrangement of the chapters in order to incorporate the material on editing and correcting into the first unit, which takes the "whole-paper" approach. The chapter on "The Double Correction Method," so popular with students and instructors because of its success in helping basic writers to learn from errors noted on their previous essays, is now in Unit One, since most instructors choose to teach it early and encourage students to use the method throughout the semester. Instructors may easily rearrange chapters to suit their individual methods because each chapter is self-contained, but the new chapter order provides a sequence that many instructors might want to follow.
This fourth edition of All in One contains fifteen readings, five of which are different from those in the third edition. These readings, like those in previous editions, are works of enduring literary value. In addition to the works by William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, Henry Thoreau, Langston Hughes, and other great authors, we have added readings from Maya Angelou, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Richard Wright, and Frank McCourt, recent winner of a Pulitzer prize for Angela's Ashes. Thus, we have included a mixture of writing ranging from the distant past to the contemporary scene.
Although we have concentrated on prose, we have also included some poetry and drama to introduce students to the richness and variety of literature. The readings in All in One have been selected to challenge and interest students and to arouse, motivate, and inspire them by demonstrating what writing can do. By reading selections from writers as diverse as Cervantes, Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou, and Frank McCourt, students can learn to appreciate the power of the written word. They see how literature can provide enjoyment, express inner feelings, and even help to create a better world.
This fourth edition retains the sample essays by students written in response to the study questions following the readings. The inclusion of these essays, all of which were written by Bronx Community College students, creates a greater integration between the two parts of the book. The essays, while providing peer prose models, link the workbook and rhetoric in Part One and the reading selections in Part Two. The questions and comments following the sample essays emphasize and clarify this link.
From previous editions we have retained two successful means of vocabulary building. The words defined with the readings are tested in the first vocabulary exercise following the reading. Most of the selections have an "Expanding Your Vocabulary" section that builds on these words, teaching different meanings and connotations of the words found in the text as well as new words related to them. Thus, All in One offers two proven methods of vocabulary building: (1) natural encountering of new words through reading, and (2) building from root words.
Like the first three editions, this new All in One provides extensive practice in sentence structure, verbs, diction, and writing mechanics for students who may not have heard standard English spoken very frequently and who may have had little previous opportunity to practice writing.
New to this fourth edition are sections designed to help students who approach English as a second language (ESL). We have added two chapters, "English Idioms for ESL Writers" and "Advice for ESL Writers," that will be particularly useful. We have retained from earlier editions the chapter "Articles: The, A, An," which many of our ESL students have found particularly valuable.
We have streamlined the approach to sentence structure, retaining those aspects of grammar that are essential to help students understand the basic syntax of the sentence, but shortening some grammatical explanations to provide more exercises that directly address some common problems-fragmented, run-on, or comma-splice sentences. We have also combined two chapters dealing with the past tense of verbs, incorporating the "confusing verb forms," that is, the principal parts of irregular verbs, into the chapter dealing with the past tense. We have retained and expanded sections of the book on proofreading strategies, especially on avoiding the problem of dropped word endings (s, 's, s', and ed), which previous users of this text have found very helpful. In short, we have aimed at retaining all that was valuable and helpful from previous editions while improving grammatical explanations wherever possible.
Because the varied reading, writing, and editing skills are best learned in conjunction with one another, All in One embodies a comprehensive view of basic writing. At a stage when students are practicing subject-verb agreement, they can also be writing paragraphs or compositions, as well as reading examples of good literature. This book takes an all-in-one approach, offering exercises for practicing essential writing skills and a selection of stimulating readings with vocabulary exercises.
back to book page |
|
